Balancing the Woofs by Tara Choate

Balancing the Woofs by Tara Choate
A Canine Accounting Caper #3
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Irene Lisner feels like her life is finally on track. Her sister Angie has moved hundreds of miles away. Her mother, Jennifer, appears to have followed Angie, so is rarely around. Goose, the new dog, is fun, and energetic, and the two are about to start agility training. Her MS symptoms look to be easing up. Work feels smooth, with no big cases on the horizon. She even has a boyfriend. It’s all too good to be true.
When she is assigned to help another department with a standard audit—the a non-standard review sends things into a downward spiral.

An unmarked plane crashes in the desert. A creature escapes from its burning wreckage, a byproduct of experiments in biological and chemical warfare—a cat.

As the multi-eyed feline mutant known as Kiki roams the Mojave Desert, terrorizing the crumbling town of Calpacia at its border, some seek to capture her. Gun-for-hire Salvadore Shaw, disgraced former Soviet Petrov and his group of mercenaries, and a professor and his chimpanzee assistant commence a vicious race to intercept Kiki’s rampage.

Who will survive the savagery of the Mojave Cat? Not many, if any.

Change is the only constant thing about life.

Irene’s relationship with her body is of my favorite aspects of this series. Like many other invisible illnesses, multiple sclerosis can grow worse or better with time. Seeing how the protagonist dealt with her symptoms and the uncertainty of how she’d feel a few days, weeks, or months in the future made everything else about her life feel more urgent. This isn’t a topic I see covered enough in fiction, so I was once again thrilled to find in this universe.

I did find myself wishing that Irene’s new dog, Goose, was given more time to shine. The previous books in this highlighted her relationship with a different pet of hers, and I was hoping for more canine-inspired conflict and humor than I found here. My fingers are crossed that any sequels in the works will include this as I’ve truly come to appreciate Irene as a character.

The ending was immensely satisfying, especially as it related to the many personal problems Irene was struggling with while she worked on this case. I liked the way she began to reorganize her life to better suit her limitations and am so curious to see how this works out for her in the future. While I don’t know if Ms. Choate has any personal experience with chronic illness and would certainly never ask her to divulge such personal information, I was impressed with how true to life these scenes felt to me as someone who has a disability. Everything from measuring out energy carefully on bad days to figuring out how to make sustainable changes for the sake of one’s health was beautifully described here, and I must tip my cap to the author for revealing a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes for some folks.

Balancing the Woofs was a gentle and heartwarming read.